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Disciplinary hearing told about doctor’s ‘unusual’ examinations of children

Dr. Stanley Bo-Shui Chung gave repeated rectal exams to a 10-year-old and a 15-year-old developmentally delayed girl, a hearing was told Thursday.

Dr. Stanley Bo-Shui Chung has been accused of sexual impropriety and/or sexual abuse of 19 patients." He has pleaded not-guilty to the accusations, which are not criminal charges. (COLIN MCCONNELL / TORONTO STAR)

A 10-year-old girl and a developmentally delayed 15-year-old were given repeated digital rectal examinations just weeks apart by their family physician, a disciplinary hearing was told Thursday.

Dr. Stanley Bo-Shui Chung justified the intimate internal examinations of the 10-year-old by telling an expert witness the pain response from the child, who went to her family doctor with abdominal pain and constipation, would tell him if the problem was persistent.

As for a developmentally delayed teen, who had complained of a groin itch, a patient chart read out at Chung’s hearing reported that a rectal exam was performed to investigate the placement of her uterus. Dr. Kimberly Wintemute, the prosecution’s expert witness, declared such an exam was unnecessary and “not medically appropriate.”

“The concern is whether a repeat digital rectal exam was needed in a 10-year-old child,” said Wintemute, who was asked to look at patterns in Chung’s patient charts.

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Wintemute said the second internal examination of the 10-year-old, referred to as Patient 12, wouldn’t tell Chung if the fissures, or breaks in skin, on her rectum had healed. The second exam was performed just two weeks after the first.

The now-retired Chung is accused of performing excessive and medically unnecessary pelvic, rectal and breast examinations and of being incompetent in his care of 19 patients. Thursday was the fourth day of Chung’s hearing at the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons, which previously gave Chung an oral warning for his practices in 2002.

He has pleaded not guilty before the college to accusations of “sexual impropriety and/or sexual abuse” of patients, which are not criminal charges.

As the hearing progressed, testimony from Wintemute suggested emerging patterns in Chung’s techniques.

Pelvic and breast exams were given to scores of girls and women.

Further, small quantities of birth control pills were repeatedly prescribed, forcing patients to return to Chung, where they often received additional breast and pelvic examinations, Wintemute said.

An entry into the chart of a Patient 6 said girl, who was not yet a teen, needed a “full physical” from her family doctor.

Chung wrote that he performed a breast exam on the patient’s chart, which was read to the discipline committee hearing.

Wintemute said an exam of that kind is not included in physicals for 12-year-old girls.

“To be clear, this was a child,” said Wintemute.

Patient 6 received another breast exam six months later in August 2000, and another when she was 13.

As she became an adult, internal pelvic exams started, including once when she visited Chung for a cough and rash.

“It’s those kinds of visits that are unusual, in that there isn’t a clear indication for a breast or pelvic exam,” Wintemute said.

“These come up again and again over many charts.”

There are also repeated suggestions Chung performed repeated rectal-vaginal “digit” examinations. For Patient 9, who received eight of the internal exams, they started in May 1993, when she was 17.

“It is not standard in family medicine to be concerned about the exact anatomy of the uterus,” Wintemute said, questioning Chung’s reasoning for performing the examinations.

The hearing will resume on April 22.

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